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The AJ’s Women in Architecture issue features interviews with Elizabeth Diller, co-founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and winner of this year’s Jane Drew Prize; and architectural photographer Hélène Binet, who has won the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for women working in the wider industry. PLUS We revisit O’Donnell + Tuomey’s Saw Swee Hock LSE student centre to see how it is faring five years on; the AJ’s Working in Architecture ...

Thames Gateway project to trigger boom in prefabrication

The government's plans for a mammoth house-building programme in the Thames Gateway area in the South East will trigger a boom in prefabrication, new housing minister Keith Hill has predicted.

Hill - speaking at the launch ofthe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's (ODPM) latest proposals for the area - said the construction skills drought has forced the government to look to 'off-site construction' as a way of meeting its ambitious targets.

'The fact is, there is a shortage ofthe craftsmen we need, and although we have put the measures in place to encourage more skilled workers to be trained, we have to look at the other possibilities, 'Hill said.

The latest ODPM strategy document, Making it happen in the South East and the Thames Gateway, outlines plans to build at least 200,000 new homes in the Thames Gateway by 2021, a move that it is hoped will also create 300,000 new jobs.

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